Kelly Epperson: The ghosts of Halloween past

Thursday

Oct 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMOct 29, 2009 at 7:11 AM

My boys are into Halloween again. Of course, when they were younger, Halloween was a given. As were Power Ranger costumes. Then they reached an age when they didn’t do Halloween. And then they circled back to an age when now they do.

Kelly Epperson

My boys are into Halloween again. Of course when they were younger, Halloween was a given. As were Power Ranger costumes. Then they reached an age when they didn’t do Halloween. And then they circled back to an age when now they do.

We ordered a glow stick jumpsuit for my firstborn and the company sent glow sticks and no suit. Their customer service is nonexistent, truly a phantom. Younger son and his passel of pals decided they would dress en masse. We bought eight black hooded robes today.

Parties, trick-or-treating and candy. It can be fun for all ages. I simply want to play dress up. I have a couple outfits from the vintage store that will make their debut this year. Searching still for the right hat. Maybe gloves, too.

The past few years I have left a bowl of candy on the front porch and hoped for the best. That will be the plan this year, too. Please take a handful and leave some for the next kid. Thank you very much.

When we had our awesome cool Victorian house with a wraparound porch, I enjoyed decorating and passing out treats. We pulled tricks, too.

The silly trick stuff started at our very first house when I teased a neighbor boy that I passed out vegetables. He didn’t believe me until Halloween night when I gave him a potato.

I can’t recall everything we did back then, but I do know we gave out broccoli and baggies of pumpkin guts. Passing out toilet paper backfired and was re-gifted right in our yard. We handed out Q-tips, but I can’t remember what we said they were. The cotton balls we dropped into bags, pillow cases and plastic pumpkins we explained were ghost poop.

We gave out candy, too. And juice boxes. And microwave popcorn. And fresh crisp one hundred dollar bills. Well, OK, not that.

People go nutsy for Halloween. It has become quite the retail industry, giving Christmas a real run for the money. My current neighborhood is no exception. One house has the Grim Reaper pulling a huge pumpkin carriage and a giant spider web that covers the front of their two-story home.
I have a metal pumpkin out front.

My guys aren’t into carving pumpkins anymore. And really, they don’t care about the candy. It’s a social thing.

As for costumes, we have to decide now if we are going to create our own jumpsuit to make a Glow Man or go with another idea. My son is thinking he might want to join me on a trip back to the vintage store. That for me would be a real treat.

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